Alcool, tabac et mortalité en France depuis 1950. Incidence de la consommation d'alcool et de tabac sur la mortalité

Nizard (Alfred), Munoz-Perez (Francisco). - Alcohol, Smoking and Mortality in France Since 1950. The Effects on Overall Mortality and the Excess Mortality of Males In a previous article it was shown that alcoholism was responsible for 40,000, and smoking for 50,000 deaths in France in 1986. Together with violent and accidental deaths these causes account for most deaths of persons aged less than 65. A reduction on alcohol consumption during the last few decades has resulted in reducing the number of deaths linked to mental illness and cirrhosis, though the number remains high. Smoking (as well as the death rate from smoking-related diseases) increased significantly until the 1980s. Although the number of deaths from cardiovascular diseases has been reduced significantly, the gap between the mortality of the two sexes has widened. The number of deaths from causes related to the combined effects of alcohol consumption and smoking (cancer of the upper respiratory and digestive tract and of the oesophagus) fell among males and continued to grow more slowly among females. The proportion of deaths caused by alcohol consumption and smoking has nearly doubled between 1952 and 1986; excepting deaths from violence or cardiovascular disease, it rose from 17 to 34 per cent of all deaths between the ages of 35 and 64 for men, and from 10 to 17 per cent for women. Were it not for these cases, the fall in the general death rate would have been twice as a great among men, and the increase among women would have been 20 per cent. The increase in the excess mortality of men between the ages of 35 and 64 (2.6 in 1986 compared with 1.8 in 1952) can be attributed mainly to smoking, and secondly to the consumption of alcohol.